Inside? Outside? Who cares? This movie still sucks.
Released: 2012
Genre(s): Horror
No matter how innovative, ambitious, or eager to break the mold, every film about exorcism released since 1973 has been and always will be compared to "The Exorcist" - perhaps the most memorable, influential, and frightening movie about the subject ever made. No other film has received more praise or more appreciative nods within this horror sub-genre. Now, thanks to the magic of modern movies, Hollywood has managed to create "The Devil Inside" - a ham-fisted, ugly film that could be considered the exact opposite of the '70s classic.
The movie doesn't start off so badly, combining the (regrettably) exploitable style of "found footage" with slow-burning creeps, all built around a premise reminiscent of 2011's "The Rite." It effectively raises those "science-versus-religion" questions (the very same that generate those 250 comment-long battles on Facebook), while simultaneously managing to raise a goosebump or two. And that's about it. There's not really a whole lot of redeeming qualities to this film.
Although I mentioned "The Devil Inside" is slow-burning, it should be noted that "slow" is the operative word here: this movie straight-up drags its ass through a glue factory. If you're not yet asleep after the first half, you'll find yourself in more "exciting" territory, where the jump-scares are frequent, cheap, and predictable. Any atmosphere that the film built up and could have capitalized on is gone by the second act. Instead, it decides to fall back on its gimmicky "novelties," lazy, clichéd writing, paper-thin characters, and tired and recycled plot points - it all plays out like a low-budget waste of time, and nobody will be found caring. To make matters worse, it sets up what is easily one of the worst endings in cinematic history. Prepare to be overwhelmed with rage.
Pointing out that this is a ripoff of earlier, better genre attempts seems redundant. It's also completely unnecessary to compare this to "The Exorcist": it'd be a massive insult to the iconic horror entry to even place it side-by-side with this crap. "The Devil Inside" doesn't manage to pay any sort of respectful homage to its predecessors, and it ends up being an utterly boring, humorless example of poor planning and even poorer execution. Even the movie cover promising the involvement of a creepy, blind nun is a lie. Disappointing doesn't even sum this one up. Avoid it like a jet of Linda Blair's demon puke.
Rating (out of 5): 1.5
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